This exhibition was organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

This exhibition is made possible through the generosity of the Fondation INK. All exhibitions at LACMA are underwritten by the LACMA Exhibition Fund.

This forest of city street lights, called Urban Light was created by artist Chris Burden. Despite initial appearances, the arrangement is not a perfect grid. Depending on where the viewer stands, the lamps arrange themselves in different angles and arrays. The 202 cast iron lamps once lit the streets of Los Angeles. Burden bought the first one at the Rose Bowl flea market, and soon collecting and restoring street lights became an obsession. He painted them all the same neutral gray, in order to draw the eye to all the different varieties of cast iron decoration.

En 1869, William H. Mumler, fotógrafo de Boston, fue llevado a los tribunales por retratar lo que, según él, eran espíritus de los muertos. Pero unos años más tarde, los estadounidenses ya no se sorprendían ni se desconcertaban ante tales experimentos con la verdad fotográfica. Un engaño muy popular consistía en fotografiar a una persona varias veces en el mismo escenario.